(REUTERS) - Charlie Austin's second-half double, on his return to the Southampton starting line-up, helped to earn his side a 4-1 English Premier League win over Everton, whose misery continued on Sunday.

Southampton took the lead at St Mary's in the 18th minute after Dusan Tadic finished off a fine team move but, just before the break, Everton levelled with a bolt from the blue as Iceland's Gylfi Sigurdsson thundered a strike from distance in off the crossbar, his first league goal for the club.

The goal did little to settle a nervous-looking Everton and they were soon behind again as Austin, making his first league start of the season, headed home in the 52nd minute before getting on the end of a left-wing cross to make it 3-1 six minutes later.

Captain Steven Davis fired home a late fourth as Southampton strolled to just their fifth home win of 2017 to move them up to 10th in the league table, while 16th-placed Everton's woes continue and David Unsworth's chances of getting the manager's job on a permanent basis were dealt another big blow.